Moonlight & Serenades
by Brandywine00
Summary: Inara's found what she came to the Black for. Or has she? Chapter 10 & Epilogue posted! Sequel to Tea & a Tango for Two.... Adult Content-- By special request for BigBadJayne...
1. Chapter 1

Moonlight and Serenades

Firefly fanfic by Brandywine00

Rating: NC-17

Disclaimer: I don't own nor make any cashy money from these wonderful folks. Joss is Boss.

By special request for BigBadJayne, who asked so nicely. Here's your RDA of N.I., cause ya deserve it!

***

Glancing over her shoulder, the petite brunette slipped smoothly from the main path into the woods.

A well-worn trail wound between the moonlit trees, leading her away from the noisy revelry of the settlement behind her. Serenity's crew had brought new seed and implements for the fledgling farm colony. Even now the town folk were hailing her shipmates as heroes and scholars and gentlemen.

Inara would have snorted, had that inelegant expression been one a Registered Companion would dare let escape her perfectly rouged lips. Scholars and gentlemen indeed, if one took a very loose interpretation of the term. And squinted really hard. And perhaps imbibed a copious amount of the local fermented drink.

A raucous cheer sounded from the party, muted now by the dense foliage. Strains of homestrung violin rose up festively behind her, though they insisted on calling it fiddle out here on the Rim she reminded herself. Perhaps she would have joined in the dancing this time, had a more delicious treat not presented itself.

Let them dance, she thought, and drink their hard cider and whiskey. Life bore them few enough pleasures out here on the edge. Her own personal heaven awaited at the trail's end, one rarely available to her on any but the Core worlds and the most settled of the Border planets. That she'd found it here, on this nearly primitive Rim planet's moon… well, Buddha didn't have to knock her over the head for her to see a special gift when fate laid it gently in her lap.

She caught the scent on the warm night air, an increased moistness luring her closer. A few footfalls closer, and her ears picked up the sound of rushing waters playing against stone. Inara felt a delicious shiver run over her.

It had been so long…. She paused beside a smooth-skinned birch tree, steadying herself against the sturdy trunk to remove the embroidered slippers from her feet. Closing her eyes, she drank in the night. Breeze blowing gently, calling her forward. A night bird calling softly to its mate, echoed somewhere farther in the darkness. The shushing sound of leaves. A small twig crackling…

Her eyes snapped open, quickly peering through the moonlight for the source of that last sound. Steadying her breath, she decided it must have been a small animal, so faint had it been. She was certain to have this time to herself, as all the men of the small settlement were wed and attended by their spouses for the soiree. The magistrate's wife, an attractive young woman who once held hopes of attending Companion training, had assured Inara that she could take this respite in privacy, that everyone would be busy with the celebration.

Only a few yards now, around one last bend in the trail, and the splendor opened to her.

The sight nearly took her breath. Fifty feet of pale stone rose into the sky, the rock glowing nearly alabaster in the light of Eire's two sister moons, both making a rare twin-full appearance. Their radiance sparkled on the rushing stream falling in an arc from the stone apex, caught the mist rising from the water's dance against the polished stones rising out of a wide pool. Within yards of the falls, the small lake grew still and calm.

Her breath truly did catch as she drew closer to the water's edge. In the pale mist lay the unmistakable prism of a moonbow. The hostess had spoken of its rarity in the known worlds, how the delicate hues only appeared during the twin-full moons, perhaps twice per year.

She found herself unable to resist the beauty and solace of this place any longer. Slipping her shawl from her smooth shoulders, she was rewarded by the caress of a light wind against her flesh. Unhurriedly, she laid the shawl and slippers on smooth rock, and began to work the tiny buttons down the back of her satin gown. Allowing the garment to pool around her ankles, she stepped slowly from the fabric before laying it gently with the shawl. Flecks of mist from the falls kissed her shapely form, gathering like diamonds in the long black curls cascading down her bare back, past her narrow waist, nearly reaching her full round buttocks.

Closing her eyes in thankfulness to Buddha, she took a deep cleansing breath, allowing the cares and woes of life to slip away. This was a moment in time. Just a moment, and Inara intended to be fully in that moment. She allowed her soft fingers to trail up her torso, skimming the firm swell of her breasts, tightening her dusky nipples into erection. Opening her eyes, she stepped almost reverently into the lake, her long, tanned legs indulging in liquid bliss. Gliding forward, she swam with sure strokes, turning her body languidly, allowing rivulets to run from the peak of her breasts into the valley between them.

Nirvana. This positively must be Nirvana, she thought, delighting in the sensual feel of warm water on her bare skin, amplified by the total freedom allowing her to drop her constant persona. Floating on her back, slender arms spread wide, she drew her fingers slowly through the water, staring up into the vast star-jeweled night.

************


	2. Chapter 2

Series:Moonlight and Serenades Part II

Sequel to: Tea & a Tango for Two

Firefly fanfic by Brandywine00

Rating: NC-17

Disclaimer: I don't own nor make any cashy money from these wonderful folks. Joss is Boss.

Author's note: This started out as a one-shot, but has decided itself to be a sequel to Tea & a Tango for Two. Some spoilers to the show and BDM.

Also, moonbows are a natural occurrence here on Earth, such as at Cumberland Falls, KY.

By special request, for BigBadJayne…

***

**~Eire Moon, on the Rim~**

The satiny dress dropped to her feet as she stepped out of it. Hands softer than that rich fabric gently laid it on the rock with her pretty shawl, the one that had just touched those marvelously smooth shoulders. Part of a woman that didn't generally get much attention, but called out like a broadwave for a man's lips to brush across gentle and sweet.

His lips ached, as he watched her from the shadowed treeline, remembering how it felt to slide over that fine skin, from silky shoulder to the tender nape of her elegant neck. Remembering the shivers his mouth had coaxed from her as it roamed her supple body. Remembering how she had come completely, wantonly undone beneath him, yet had completely unraveled his whole being at the same time.

The delicious flush of memory nearly caused him to break from his cover in the woods, dive head-first from the white shores into the water to join her, but he held himself in check. Inara hadn't given him any sure sign that his attentions were still welcome, though the revived relationship she'd sought with Mal after Miranda had petered out fairly quick.

She'd been more friendly to Jayne than before their one shared night, softer looks, gentler tone when she spoke to him. But she'd not been alone with him for more than a few minutes since getting back on the ship. Uncertainty with women weren't a feeling he had much dealings with, and the whole situation had him all twisted up inside.

"Sometimes, a woman just needs time to think on things," his Ma's voice echoed across the star miles. "Get things set straight in her mind afore she jumps into a situation."

He knew her world had been turned ass-over-teakettle in just a few months, finding out what the Alliance she'd supported had done to a whole world of its subjects. Top it off with her precious Companion's Guild suspending her license to take clients, what with her up and leaving with 'the pirate Reynolds' and her part in exposing the horrors of the dead planet Miranda.

"Pendin' review, my muscular buttocks," Jayne muttered. Finest damned woman on all worlds spinning, 'cepting his Ma of course, and they had to 'review' whether she was good enough for them to associate with.

When he'd seen her slip quietly into the woods alone, Jayne told himself he only followed to guard her. Keep her safe from any man who might get any wrongful ideas, finding a beautiful woman alone in the woods. He knew very well what kind of ideas those were, was trying his damnedest to shove them to the back of his mind.

Hard enough to do, when the fantasies had actual memory to back them up. Outright impossible when she shed those fancy clothes and stood there on the white moonlit sand, bare as the day she was born. Mist from the falls sprayed up to dance in her long dark hair like a thousand stars, covering her satiny skin in dew he'd about die to taste.

Jayne felt his fingers burn as she drew her own hands slowly up her body, gently teasing her own breasts like she imagined a lover. Twin desires spiked through him, that he would be that lover again, and that in her mind right now, she pictured those hands skimming across her body were his.

She'd come to him that night, months ago, looking for the fire and passion her strict career didn't allow room for. He'd obliged, fulfilling her every wish and his every unlikely dream. Not long afterward, she'd left Serenity, and returned to her own world to teach at the Companions' training house.

He'd slogged on as usual, doing jobs with the crew, tucking away that night spent in her arms as the best, and most like only, slice of heaven he'd ever taste. He never let on afterwards that his 'verse had been altered, wouldn't – couldn't – be the same ever again.

After her return to Serenity, he'd kept his promise, hadn't spoken a word or given a hinting glance of his feelings for her, though they grew stronger each day. As expected, she and Mal had resumed their own dance, and Jayne hadn't tried to cut in.

Weren't too long, nor too surprising, when they'd called it quits. No big fight. No yelling. No hurled insults. Mal hadn't even called her "whore." They'd just sorta calmly fell into a neutral co-existence on the ship.

Inara floated now on her back, the glow from Eire's two sister moons lighting her with an otherworldly shine. Her full breasts rose from the water as round and firm as those two moons in the sky. Trails of water danced across her skin as dipped a hand in the lake and let the silvery liquid trail slowly onto her body. Her long, slender legs flexed slowly, sending ripples out into the lake.

Jayne leaned against a tall straight birch, one hand still on the butt of his Le Mat, half closing his eyes to relish the image those sultry legs against red velvet, quivering from his kisses up her calves, behind her knees, between those firm delicious thighs.

Feeling himself grow full and hard, he eased his free hand across the tightening rise in his pants, stroking lightly against the straining canvas while he watched her luxuriate in the private lake. As if reading his mind, she slid a hand down her wet body, slipping her middle fingers into the dark juncture between her legs, drawing them back achingly slow, easing them back to disappear again. His breath grew heavy as he gripped the heated ridge through the cloth and stroked in time with her own sweet hand, feeling the need growing with each unhurried pass.

Gorram fool! His senses shouted out to him, snapping him from ecstasy at the shuffling sound behind him. Drawing the revolver, he spun to face the danger, both relieved and chagrined as a startled deer took flight.

Jayne blew out a hard sigh, chuckling low at his luck, yet chastened at letting even a deer get the drop on him. Had that been a real threat… he didn't pursue that line of thought, but gave the trees another hard scan to make sure no one had slipped by him. Satisfied, he turned resume his vigil of the bathing beauty.

She was gone.

Alarms blaring in his mind, he searched the lake's surface for her form, for signs of movement beneath the water. No trace on the beach, nor in the pale rocks, nor under the spray of the falls.

White-hot fear speared through him as he launched himself toward the beach. Gorram townie! No, his mind calculated as he tore from the trees, making a bee-line for the spot she'd last been in. Not any of those farmers had the stealth to get by him unawares. Reavers wouldn't be so quiet, animal woulda made some noise. What the hell had happened to her?

"Inara!?" his voice echoed off the stone cliffs.

Tossing his weapons atop her abandoned gown, he dove into the water, still frantically calling her name.

***

_Reviews are as shiny as a speckled pup in a little red wagon…. Let me know what you think? Thanks!_


	3. Chapter 3

Series:Moonlight and Serenades Part III

Sequel to: Tea & a Tango for Two

Firefly fanfic by Brandywine00

Rating: NC-17

Disclaimer: I don't own nor make any cashy money from these wonderful folks. Joss is Boss.

Author's note: This started out as a one-shot, but has decided itself to be a sequel to Tea & a Tango for Two. Some spoilers to the show and BDM. Also, moonbows are a real occurrence here on Earth-that-Is, such as at Cumberland Falls, KY.

Special thanks to jellie_rayneluv for the beta!

By special request, for BigBadJayne… thanks for the wonderful comments!

***

**~Eire Moon, on the Rim~**

The serene lake broke apart as the big man charged into the water, fully clothed.

"I-na-raa!" he bellowed, desperation edging his cry. "I-naa-raaa!"

Jackknifing below the surface, he tried in vain to search the darkened water, swiping his arms around the depths in the area he'd last seen her. Breaking the surface, he gulped in deep breaths, eyes sweeping the lake, the shore, the woods again, back and forth, terror gnawing at his gut.

What the hell happened? Where was she? Woman was a strong swimmer, he'd seen that, and there weren't no great current to speak of. Briefly, he wondered if some native water creature had pulled her under. Every world terraformed had some such beast or critter that didn't quite adjust to the quirks of the new environment, but surely, surely that woman who'd mentioned this place woulda said something. Woulda warned Inara.

A thousand scenarios raced through his mind, each more horrifying than the one before, till he was near spinning in a circle, treading water, scanning, searching the horizon for some small sign of her. His heart banged against his ribs, so loud in his ears it near drowned out the rush of the falls, pumping so much blood through his body, the water should be boiling from the heat rolling off him. Instead, his arms and legs felt like ice, and a cold dread weighed down his chest.

Lunging toward the lower rocks near the shore, he sliced through the water with powerful strokes, intent on reaching higher ground, better vantage point, start tracking her. He'd track her. He could do that. He was good at that.

He reached the edge quickly, grabbing hold of the ledge to pull himself up, when something latched onto his belt, and yanked him back. With a startled yell, he felt the waterlogged trousers give way and slide to his knees, before the weight pulled him back under the water.

Expecting to be taken down by some fey creature, his heart nearly stopped when something grasped his calves with certainty, and then his upper thighs, with hard, sharp tips on the end of its – claws? Fingers? Gorram tentacles? What?

Ready to do battle for his life, he bolted through the surface, yelping as a firm, velvety heat surrounded his exposed manhood, latching on with a strength that would surely see him devoured whole in moments.

The shock of it immobilized him for a spare moment, before he reached down to pull himself loose. His hand met with a swirling wet mass of long curls that now wrapped around his hand and hips as his diao sprang suddenly to a life of its own under the constant suction.

"Cào!" he shouted, his dueling fear and relief overpowered for a brief moment by the flare of electricity shooting from his nethers to the rest of his adrenaline-charged body. He gripped the hair beneath the water, joyous in the familiar feeling of its silky lengths.

The sudden jolting of emotion returned, and he pulled the delicious pleasure away from him, hauling her up to meet his glare. Inara gasped as she broke water, her brilliant smile faltering at the look on his face.

"Inara," he growled, still gripping her hair in one firm fist, his other arm sweeping around her waist.

One second, he held her firm away from him, staring hard into her eyes. The next moment he crushed her to his massive chest. His rough kiss pressed against her temple before he tugged her head back, her spine arching against the muscles of his forearm, his face clenched in a mask of fury and confusion.

Her eyes flew open wide, full lips quivering as they struggled to work themselves around words to explain.

"Jayne, I only meant to…" her small voice fell away as she searched the anger and hurt that consumed him. "I was only playing, wanted to-"

"Told ya once, woman, I ain't a man to be played with," he ground out, his mind whirling around the reasons she'd pull such a dirty trick on him. "Why'd ya wanna do me like that? Didja get yer jollies, me runnin' around, hollerin' like a gorram fool over ya?"

He fought like all hells against the dampness lining his eyes, knowing it had nothing to do with the water trickling down his brow from his wet hair. She wasn't even trying to fight the fat tears rolling down her cheeks as she caught shuddering breaths.

She was a picture of misery, her downturned bow of a mouth trembling, her body naked and shivering and as soaked as a drowned kitten. The pitiful sight of her nearly lifted the red fog shrouding his brain, before the years of distrust that had kept him alive slammed back into his thoughts. Companions were known for their wiles, making a man believe what they wanted him to believe. Never would've expected her to use her wiles on him, but after this stunt, Jayne wasn't sure what he could trust in.

"Know ya ain't never gonna be head over heels a-lovin' me, but… hell, I thought that night meant a little somethin' to ya. Thought ya could see it was more'n just a roll 'tween the sheets for me."

His thick voice broke, surprising them both with the rawness of it.

"Damn, Inara… I never dreamed ya'd wanna hurt me like that a-purpose."

***

The author hereby grovels for reviews…. Thanks so much!


	4. Chapter 4

Series:Moonlight and Serenades Part IV

Sequel to: Tea & a Tango for Two

Firefly fanfic by Brandywine00

Rating: NC-17

Disclaimer: I don't own nor make any cashy money from these wonderful folks. Joss is Boss.

Author's note: This started out as a one-shot, but has decided itself to be a sequel to Tea & a Tango for Two. Some spoilers to the show and BDM. Also, moonbows are a real occurrence here on Earth-that-Is, such as at Cumberland Falls, KY. Rushed delivery without beta, so please let me know if I made boo-boos…thanks! Reviews are oh-so shiny! :-)

By special request, for BigBadJayne… thanks for the wonderful comments! ;-)

***

~Eire moon, on the Rim~

Inara spotted him among the trees, tall and straight as the white-barked birch he leaned against. Her own personal guardian angel with slightly singed wings, keeping vigil while she indulged in this hidden heaven. She wasn't sure how long he'd been standing guard, but the thought that he watched sent a bolt of electricity through her.

Emboldened by the knowledge of his eyes on her, she drizzled the warm lake water across her breasts, arching her back to display herself more clearly to him. A sweet ache formed in her core as the stream hit her aroused nipples, trailed down the swell of her firm breasts to the smooth skin of her belly. Answering the ache, she slid a hand to the heat between her thighs, gliding elegant fingers up and down the slickness of her flesh with an agonizingly slow rhythm.

A moan rose from her throat, bringing a flood of images. Jayne's gentle, callused hands bringing her to peak time and again. His devilish mouth wringing every ounce of pleasure from her core. His strong, powerful body gliding over her, as she gave herself to him without compromise. They'd had only the one night together, months ago, but the memories refused to lose clarity.

For that one night, she had been free in every sense of the word. For the first time, she'd not had to control the rhythm, or focus solely on her partner getting his money's worth, or try to live up to the Guild's demanding standards. It had been the most liberating union of her life.

His eagle-sharp eyes must have caught that she was returning his hot gaze. Relaxing into the sturdy tree, his long-fingered hand mirrored her self-pleasuring touches, deliberately, erotically stroking himself in perfect time with hers.

Suddenly discontent with only shared voyeurism, Inara dove below the surface, and waited for the hunter to give chase and join her, unfettered and wanton under the moonbow and mist.

Barely hearing him calling for her under the lake, she glided beneath the surface toward his legs. Impetuous man! So hot with desire, he'd plunged into the water fully dressed. His boots would be waterlogged for weeks, but she'd make sure he wouldn't be sorry. As she closed in on him, he bolted for the shore. Spurred toward him by his playful game of hard-to-get, she gave chase.

An unfamiliar, arousing aggression surging through her limbs. Such a heady rush, to be the hunter, no longer the prey. She lunged after him as he nearly cleared the water, grabbing his waistband and using the rising rock face to kick backward, pulling him down to her. Years of practice in the art of undressing men lent speed to her fingers, and she had his belt undone, his pants hauled down, within mere moments.

Near frenzy with need, she clutched his muscular thighs, sleek and tight against her arms, and claimed her quarry in her hungry mouth. His instant response no longer surprised her, not after that long, fulfilling night he'd given her months ago. She knew she had him when his powerful hand gripped her hair, his staff growing firm and hot and close to full attention in her mouth. Loosening her oral grip to surface for air, she lightly raking her teeth along the sensitive skin of his diao as he hauled her up to him out of the water.

Her laughter died on her lips. The scowl he wore bespoke nothing of the pleasure she thought he was surely sharing.

"Inara," he growled, with something besides desire in his rumbling tone. His scowl jarred the remnants of her passion from her, leaving her vulnerable to the cooling night wind on her damp skin.

In an instant, his thick arm circled her like a vise, the deep blue of his irises glistening with dark emotion, though she dared not guess which one. Crushing her to his wide chest, he pressed a firm kiss against her temple, before pulling her back to fix a furious glare at her.

"Jayne, I only meant to…" she tried to explain, confused at his anger and the other, unnamed emotions entangled with it. "I was only playing, wanted to-"

"Told ya once, woman, I ain't a man to be played with. Why'd ya wanna do me like that? Didja get yer jollies, me runnin' around, hollerin' like a gorram fool over ya?"

He stood as rigid and immovable as the white stones around them, the pale light glinting off rivulets of water falling from his hair and face… welling in his stormy eyes. Confused, Inara felt hot tears spill down her cheeks.

"Know ya ain't never gonna be head over heels a-lovin' me, but… hell, I thought that night meant a little somethin' to ya. Thought ya could see it was more'n just a roll 'tween the sheets for me."

His deep voice broke with raw emotion, the pain it carried hit like a fist to her middle.

"Damn, Inara… I never dreamed ya'd wanna hurt me like that a-purpose."

"Jayne, I didn't mean-" she sputtered, remorse filling her. The impromptu game of hide-and-seek, a delightful idea to entice him from the shadows to join her, seemed a horrid joke to him, she realized.

"Didn't mean, what, Inara?" he hissed through gritted teeth, giving her hair a sharp tug. "Didn't mean to scare the go se out of me, wondering what god-awful thing had happened to ya?" Another hard tug, his arms flexing around her. "Didn't mean for me to worry myself sick that somebody or some thing had hauled ya off to hurt ya?"

"I-I only wanted-"

"Wanted to what, Inara?!" he barked. "To see the endin' of me? Ya got no ruttin' idea what'd happen to me if ya ever got hurt, if – something bad - whilst I was watchin' over ya! No gorram idea!"

She shook her head as far as his grip would allow. "Jayne - no one would blame- Mal wouldn't do anyth-"

"Mal wouldn't gorram have to!" he shouted inches from her face, his fury giving way to shades of grief. Yanking her into his tight embrace, he whispered hoarsely against her ear. "Nobody'd have to, woman. I'd end myself, I let ya down like that."

"Jayne… bao bei… I'm so s-sorry," she sobbed against his neck. "I didn't mean… to frighten… make y-you think… I th-thought you saw me… saw m-me dive. I just w-wanted… you to… come down… t-to… wanted y-you to b-be with me…"

The entirety of everything gone wrong crashed down on her. Her ill-fated attempt to draw him to her. The long weeks and months aboard Serenity without a sign he wanted anything more than their one night's joining. Her failure to coax openness or emotion from Mal, their failed non-relationship. The looming review and current suspension from the Guild she had trained to serve all her adult life. Desiccated bodies laying where they fell on the abandoned social experiment called Miranda. Beasts that were once men, gone mad beyond reason for blood and flesh and pain. The betrayal by the Alliance she'd supported, knowing she and billions others had been – were still being – lied to. Used. Like a whore, her mind numbly quipped.

Everything she'd ever known or wanted or trusted had turned to vapor. Shifted like quicksand beneath her feet, nothing was solid.

Except this man, pressing her into him, muscles still twitching from exertion and fear and anger. Yet despite his furor, however undeserved, his embrace was firm, not punishing. Solid. He wrapped her up so tightly she could never fall away, and allowed her to spend her anguish on his broad shoulder.

When her sobs faded to small gasps, his embrace loosened just a bit, arms still trembling as they held her against him. Releasing her hair, he slid his palm to her jaw, tilting it up to search her face.

"Jayne, truly, I'm so sorry," she whispered. "I only wanted you to come to me. I wanted you…"

The desperation and fury drained from his eyes, leaving only traces of worry and disgruntlement, and a hint of embarrassment.

He shook his head, a pained smile playing on the edge of his mouth. "Gorramit, woman," he choked out.

"Ya coulda just whistled."

***


	5. Chapter 5

Moonlight & Serenades Part V  
Sequel to: Tea & a Tango for Two  
Author: Brandywine00  
Rating: NC-18. And I mean it in this chapter. Consider yourself warned!  
Disclaimer: I don't own, nor do I make any cashy money from this. Joss is Boss!  
Thanks Jellie_RayneLuv for the beta!

By special request for BigBadJayne…

***  
~Eire Moon, on the Rim~

Inara stared through the droplets caught in her lashes, into the Jayne's intense blue eyes. "Whistle – ?"

"Yeah. Ya coulda just whistled," he said, brushing a broad thumb across her quivering lips as he thought back on an old Earth-that-Was vid that his Ma and sisters had gone bibbledy over. "Ya know how to whistle, don'cha Inara?"

Her growing smile, and the feel of her bare nipples hardening against his thin wet shirt, told him she did indeed. With wide eyes, she opened her mouth in a pretty 'O', allowing him to slide his thumb inside. She sucked lightly, swirling her tongue against the callused pad, never taking her gaze from his.

Jayne felt his breath hitch as she drew her lips and tongue and teeth lightly up to the tip of his thumb, dwelling there to let the wet pink tip of her tongue flicker at the end. "I've heard," she said, moving to give long, slow licks up his fingers, "You just… put your lips… together… and blow…," she finished, using the pressure of her skillful mouth to pull his longest finger deep into the heat between her lips.

Still bare to the water and her naked thighs, his aroused diao grew harder with each velvety stroke of her tongue. Wanting sure footing, he pulled her away a bit, and fished in the water to pull his pants back around his waist, not bothering to fasten the buttons. He held her close to his body, and swam to the low-lying boulders closer to the base of the falls. The mist was thicker here, shrouding them in a hazy cocoon, the rushing water muffling the sounds of the night. Catching a foothold on an shelf of the rocks beneath the water, he took her slender waist in both big hands and lifted her effortlessly onto the smooth stone.

She looked like a gorram mermaid, or one of those sirens from the old sailor stories that drove a man so crazy with need that he'd crash on the rocks just to be with her. She leaned back onto her elbows, watching him from the dark fringe of her lashes as he unbuttoned his drenched shirt, dragging it back off his shoulders, unfastening the cuffs.

He peeled it off slow, giving her a good, long look as he undressed for her. Giving himself a few moments to collect his calm. These last few months had been hell on him, that's for sure, a torment he hadn't expected when they'd parted.

Jayne hadn't never pined over a woman, not in all the years he'd been a man. But Inara leaving Serenity made a hole in him he hadn't expected. Didn't know how to fill. He'd meant what he said, that her high-fallutin' world wasn't for him, and that he wouldn't ask her to abandon it for him.

Never woulda dreamed a woman like her would come back to the Black, choose to live on some dinged-up old transport, not once she got back to the fancy life with her own kind. But damned if she hadn't, staying on board even after the Operative who'd come after them had called off the chase, got the wanted alerts cleared off each of them.

Sure as nine hells would'na figured her to pick up with him where they left off all them months ago. Every day she'd been back, he felt like his chest was stuck in a vise, the crank getting turned tighter and tighter each day. Even though the pressure eased up a bit when the thing with Mal died off, just seeing her each day… walking in the wake of her perfume, hearing her laugh in another room… she got his head all befuzzled without even trying to, made his gut tighten up like he was getting ready for a punch.

Seeing as how it had been her that had come to him that first time, asking him to lay her down good and proper – and he'd damned sure done that – Jayne figured if she wanted a repeat performance, she'd have let him know. Several long months had passed, and no sign. Though it killed him to sit and wait and hope, he'd played things cool and friendly-like, laughing at her jokes, smiling when he passed her in the hallway, hanging back when he played bodyguard to her and Kaylee and little River on shopping trips.

He struggled to keep his calm unshaken, while she floated around Serenity like a fairy princess. Like a star-lit goddess in the middle of the Black. What the ruttin' hell could a hard man like him offer a woman like her, besides a bodyguard and a bit of pleasure in the night?

Well, she certainly looked like she'd take his offer right now. She worked the edge of her plump bottom lip with pearly white teeth, as her dark, smoldering gaze took in every inch of his skin, watched intensely as he balanced one foot on the rock to unlace and pry off his drowned boots. He laid them high up on the rocks with the discarded shirt, and eased his hands down his abdomen, hooking the waistband of his pants. If protection and loving were all the use she had for him, he'd make ruttin' sure it was the best she'd ever got. Woman had spent her life looking to the pleasure of others, 'bout gorram time somebody saw to hers. Jayne relished the thought of making it a full-time job.

The waterline reached just to his upper thighs, and he saw her breasts rise and fall a little quicker, a little heavier when he scrolled the heavy canvas of his pants down his lean hips. Her pupils darkened as his John Thomas made an appearance, thick and full, jutting up out of the water at attention. He tossed the pants with the rest of his clothes, and moved to stand tall between her parted legs, teasing his palms up her outer thighs. Wetting his lips, Jayne let his eyes drink in every beautiful inch of her perfect body, anticipation causing a shiver in his muscles.

"Well, lookee here what I found. A pretty little mermaid, all lovely an' lonesome."

He let his fingers trail down the top of her thighs, sliding them to the tender undersides behind her upraised knees. "Might oughta be careful, little mermaid. Hear tell there's fearsome sea creatures about these parts."

"A sea creature, you say," Inara said, widening her eyes in mock fear. "How will I know it? Is it very large?"

"Oh, yeah, it's big. Real big!" Brushing his hot staff against the delicate flesh of her inner thighs, he laughed low and devilishly. "Fierce beastie, with one eye to stare right into you. And powerful hungry. Near starved. Fear he may gobble a sweet little thing like you right up, mermaid."

"I'm not afraid of a ferocious sea creature," she boasted, rubbed her thigh against his diao. The coolness of her naked skin against his hot flesh brought him dangerously close to abandoning their play. He closed his eyes, overcome by the temptation to just plunge himself into her slick, wet slit and –

The Callahan full-bore autolock has a double-guage throughway, customized trigger, and fires at a rate of –

"Jayne?"

Jayne opened his eyes, a flush creeping up his neck. "Didn't say that out loud, did I?"

Her laughter was like bells, but she shook her head, causing droplets of mist to fall from her dark curls. "No, bao bei, you didn't say anything."

He huffed a sigh of relief. In her line of work, he was sure Inara understood a man's need to sometimes distract his mind before his animal urges got things over with too quick. He just didn't want to prove that to her in the here and now.

"But your lips were moving," she added.

"Hmmph. Beast's been hungry so long, damned near starvin' for this tender little morsel," he said. He ran his hands up the mist-dampened skin of her belly, cupping her full, firm breasts in his palms. His thumbs brushed the dark nipples pointing up to the starry sky. She shivered, arching her chest up into his hands. He brought his head to meet the hardened buds, breathing hot, then cool over the sensitive flesh.

"Don't wanna rush through his feast. Wants to take his time, enjoy every bit slow and easy," he said. His tongue slid to tantalize the very tips of her nipples, pulling back when she pushed up farther to his mouth. She gave a short huff, and ground her hot center against his groin in frustration. Jayne laughed low and quiet in his throat. "Slow and easy."

"Ooooh, Jayne, the mermaid is starving, too!" she said. "I haven't had – "

She held her tongue, but the bright moonlight told on her, allowing him to see her blush. He gently rolled and plucked the buds between his thumbs and fingers, placing light kisses along the heightened flush of her neck and throat.

"Been a while for you too, has it, mermaid?"

"A long while, Jayne." She admitted quietly. "The last time was in my shuttle, before I left Serenity. A certain lusty mercenary had his way with me."

He raised his head to look into her face, stunned. "Not since we…"

She shook her head. "I didn't contract when I left the ship, and instructors don't take clients at the training house. The Guild suspended my license after I left, and Mal and I never… well, I don't care to go into that. So… no, not since we shared the night. You're the last man I've shared union with, Jayne."

"Huh," he said simply, surprised. "I figured at the Companion school…"

"No, our facility taught only young women. And, enjoyable as sex with another woman is, it's just not the same."

That little tidbit brought a surge through his staff, the image of Inara and her lady-councilor client playing in his mind. Unbidden images of nubile young Companions in training receiving a very hands-on instruction from this lovely lady nearly brought him to release. He bit down on the inside of his cheek, his clenched jaw working to control the sudden burst of desire.

"Woman, if ya don't want me to fire off this rocket right now, ya'll hold off on talkin' about other women," he rasped.

Damned if she didn't laugh again, a wicked gleam in her big brown eyes.

"Then I suppose you don't want to hear about the private, in-depth 'continuing education' studies I needed with our House Mistress, Sheydra. Her specialty, really. She does this delightful thing with her mouth, where she – "

Jayne kissed her hard, sliding his tongue into her, dragging his fevered lips across the silk of her mouth. She wrapped her arms around his ribs, digging her nails into the skin of his back. He moaned, heard her echo the sound, and capturing her lower lip in his teeth.

"'Nara," he growled, not letting go. "That's twice tonight I think ya tried to kill me!"

Stroking his diao along her velvety folds, he plundered her mouth with his, letting every ounce of desire he'd felt over these long months pour into the kiss. Inara responded, pushing her svelte body up into him, clutching his back as if she were trying to pull the whole of him into herself.

Breaking the kiss, he stared down into her shining dark eyes.

"Tell me what you want, Mermaid. Tell me what you want me to do for you."

With a fire he'd never seen in her before, she pushed against his shoulders. "I want you to lay down on this stone, Jayne. I want you to lay back, and let me do what I please with your body. I want to have my way with you, Jayne."

****

Reviews are the best thing since automatic drip coffee makers! Please?


	6. Chapter 6

Moonlight & Serenades Part VPage 410/31/2009

Fanfiction by Brandywine00

Moonlight & Serenades Part VI

Sequel to: Tea & a Tango for Two

Author: Brandywine00

Rating: NC-18, MATURE ADULT. And I mean it in this chapter. Maybe even NC-21. Or 30!

Consider yourself warned!

Disclaimer: I don't own, nor do I make any cashy-money from this. Joss is Boss!

By special request for BigBadJayne…

***

~Eire Moon, on the Rim~

"I want you to lay down on this stone, Jayne. I want you to lay back, and let me do what I please with your body. I want to have my way with you, Jayne."

Inara felt a surge of power through her body, as her lover's dark blue eyes glazed over at her words. Jayne's breath came short and hard through the wide smile growing on his handsome face. Stealing one more kiss from her, he launched himself up onto the flat, smooth rock beside her, rolling to his back, thick arms spread wide like a willing pagan sacrifice on a stone altar.

"My lady Mermaid commands me," he said deep and low. "I'm yers to do as ya will."

Muted light reflected off his damp, hard body, caught the glinting white of his smile as she leaned over him. Her long, dark hair fell in a curtain around them as she stroked the angles of his broad jaw, running her thumb lightly over the clipped beard of his strong chin. Lowering her lips to his, she gently played at the tender flesh waiting there, sliding her mouth across his ever so slowly, savoring the faint whisky taste of him. Gliding her tongue across his smooth lips, she delved into his waiting mouth, swallowing his throaty groan.

Drawing back to study the effects on him, she let the burgeoning need for dominance flow through her limbs. He was hers. Had always been, she realized now, a rush of heat spreading to her core as she contemplated the ways she wanted to pleasure this man.

True to his word, he remained prone, never offering to grab her, pull her to him, though the effects of her play was attentive and proud between his muscular thighs. He let his tongue slip over his lips, like he was tasting her memory, as he watched her though hooded eyes. The effect nearly undid her, forcing her to lean back on her heels to catch her own breath. Merciful Buddha, how she wanted to just straddle his firm diao and ride him till the moons fell out of the sky.

Breathing deeply to regain her center, she trailed her burgandy-lacquered nails across the expanse of his chest, loving the way he really tried not to arch his back into her hands. She grazed his hard nipples, bringing a hiss from him, then ran the flat of her palms across every inch of his broad shoulders, the thick biceps, the tight cords of his forearms still stretched wide for her. His long-fingers clenched and unclenched rhythmically, in time to the faint tightening of his abdominal muscles.

He was trying, bless him, to stay still, but a sudden wicked streak ran over her and she decided not to make it so easy for him.

"You know, Jayne, I'm truly sorry for causing you worry," she purred, tracing whorls in the trail of hair leading down his chest and belly. Drawing her fingers lightly over the trembling flesh of his lower abs, she leaned over to flick a nipple with the tip of her tongue.

"I supposed I should try to make amends for your ordeal. Whatever shall I do?" She gently sucked the hardened nub between her lips, catching it, holding it ever so lightly between her teeth. "Wha' shall I do?" she repeated, her tongue darting staccato against the sensitive tip.

Jayne groaned deep and loud, flexing his chest into her mouth, but she laughed, revisiting his own actions on him as she backed away from the pressure, his nipple still tenderly but firmly captured between her teeth. She bit down a little, just enough to hear him catch his breath, then carefully raked the aroused flesh as she turned her attentions to his navel.

She thought he'd bolt up from the stone as she lightly laved the hollow spot, ranging out to lick and suckle at the soft skin covering his hips and abdomen, but he bore it like a trooper, gritting his teeth and clutching at the rock beneath him as she took her time. A body this hardened had no right to be so silky, she thought, another surprising treat she'd discovered about this man who now writhed beneath her skillful touch.

She had studiously avoided the iron-hard erection laying high along his lower belly, letting her tongue dance lightly around the hot flesh, dropping down to place wet, burning kisses along the inside of his thighs, trailing the tip of her tongue along the crease of the juncture of his long, hard legs. He let them fall open a bit, though his struggle not to buck up into the pleasure was losing ground.

"Aaaahhh, god, 'Nara," he groaned, and she could feel him flex the muscles of his beautifully crafted ass in an attempt to hold himself back. "Woman… Mermaid… three times, 'Nara. Yer gonna… aaahhh…. be the death of me…"

Raising up long enough to shoot him a wicked, unrepentant grin, she settled on her knees between his thighs, delighting in the tremor of his powerful thighs as she caressed them with the backs of her fingers.

"I told you, I fear no wild sea beast, did I not?"

His breath came in forceful pants as she let her long hair sweep teasingly over his nethers. "Perhaps you should know…" she slid her warm hands up, spreading his thighs wider, "…mermaids eat fierce sea beasties for breakfast."

Jayne's body jerked as her hot mouth slid up the engorged length of his diao. Hollowing her velvety tongue, she slowly covered that entire side of his staff, drawing the stroke up from the base to the tip so slowly it made her ache on his behalf. She repeated the torture half a dozen times at half-pace before surrounding the tip of him between her lips. Just briefly, before sliding her mouth hard down one side, and backup with suction. Down the other side, she felt him harden further as she reached the base. He moaned hard through gritted teeth as her tongue danced across the flesh held firm to her lips. She glanced up at his face; his jaw clenched, wide brow furrowed with intensity, pleasure and need. The sinews of his shoulders threatened to burst, they were so tense.

Her devilish laugh held little sympathy for his condition, but she showed mercy, enveloping his rigid diao in the welcoming depths of her mouth, circling him with both hands, using all three to milk him slowly to peak. He couldn't stand any more, tangling his fingers in her wild curls, not hard but firm, and raising his lean hips up to meet her with each stroke.

"Not… gonna – aaaaahhhh – last," he rasped, his head thrown back.

Pulling her mouth away for the briefest of moments, she whispered, "I know, bao bei… let go…" and she engulfed him again.

"'Nara – Don't," he ground out, still grasping to contain himself. "Don't – hafta – do that…aaaaahhhh…I'm gonna –"

Thrusting his pelvis high into her, he spasmed as she flexed her fingers and mouth around him, coaxing him over the edge. His body went stiff, the sound of his release choked in the back of his throat as his hot seed poured into her.

****

To be continued…..


	7. Chapter 7

Moonlight & Serenades Part VII

Sequel to: Tea & a Tango for Two

Author: Brandywine00

Rating: NC-18, MATURE ADULT. Really.

Disclaimer: I don't own, nor do I make any cashy-money from this. Joss is Boss!

Author's note: Sorry for the long delay, but other projects have needed attention. Which I should be working on right now. Yes, BBJ, I hear the whip cracking - LOL… getting right back to the other thing right now, I promise! I just needed to switch gears for a bit and get this chapter finished, for a bit of inspiration, ya know… ;-)

By special request for BigBadJayne…

* * *

~Eire Moon, on the Rim~

She stared up at him with a fiery satisfaction in her sable eyes, and a wicked little grin that nobody in the wide 'verse would expect from a woman like her. Composed, dignified, genteel Inara Serra, respectable Companion, delicate flower of the civilized 'verse, leering up at him like the cat that got the cream.

Jayne threw back his head at the thought, his deep laugh rolling across the lake. "Gor-ram-it, Mermaid," he said when he could catch his breath, twining his fingers gently into her dark, silky curls. "Did not expect that! Whooo!"

She was looking mighty pleased with herself, and damned right she should. Every muscle in his strapping body felt like three kinds of jelly plastered all over that white rock, with the spray of the waterfalls flicking on his skin, and the most beautiful woman on all the worlds spinnin' placing light kisses along his still-twitching abs.

He just laid there for a minute with his blood still thrumming through his body, recovering from what she'd done to him, and not just the physical part, though that'd take him some recuperating, too. He drank in the heavy, woodsy scent of the night, the water whooshing against the cliff and the sleek, softness of her skin against his.

He'd had willing women and good sexing on just about every rock twirling 'round, but not a one could match this little lady when it came to pleasing him. Weren't just on account of her rarified training, neither. That was all kinds of good shiny, but what set her apart was the open, honest, unashamed enjoyment of their bodies joining up in the way Nature had formed them to.

Since the first time she'd laid hands on him, she hadn't held back, but had given him every ounce of her want and affection, if only for the time they were together. And she drew that same from him. Driving him to the edge of control. Holding him at the peak to enjoy the exquisite torture. Spurring him over the edge so hard he damn near blacked out. Bringing him back with her with soft words and tender kisses. She was softer than a man like him had a right to hold, but damn if he wouldn't try.

He reached down and gently pulled her up to lay along the length of his body, wrapping her up in his arms with her head tucked under his jaw. Draping a long leg over hers, Jayne let out a contented sigh, letting the tips of his fingers trace along her spine.

It was a wonder he'd been able to keep his hands to himself over the past few months, but he'd managed it. This wasn't like any other situation he'd ever been in, not some quick rendezvous he could just jump in and out of. Rather than his usual take-it-or-leave-it attitude toward personal relationships, this one mattered to him. He'd given up fooling himself that it didn't, that he could walk away if he wanted, or if she didn't want him, and it wouldn't affect him one bitty whit. Come hell or high water, he decided, he wasn't letting go of her again if he could help it. He'd fight whoever, whatever he had to for the right to be with her, for as long as and in whatever capacity she'd have him.

"Mmmmm," Inara purred against his chest, drawing whorls across his skin. "I thought for a while perhaps the sea beastie had lost his fierce appetite for mermaids."

Jayne scoffed. "That'll be the day, darlin'." He gave her a squeeze, burying his face in her hair. "Ain't never gonna happen." She smelled like flowers, not the sticky-sweet kind, but rich and mysterious, like something exotic growing wild on a cliff above the waters. Few would dare the climb just to taste the heady scent.

Drawing his palm slow and sure up the length of her, he cupped the back of her head, tilting her lips to his. She'd had the edge taken off his appetite, but she was still hungry. Inara moaned softly into his mouth as he let his tongue stroke, and tease, and explore. His other hand caressed downward, molding to the firm, sweet curve of her buttocks, holding her close against his body. He couldn't control the automatic flexing of his hips, pressing his diao against the silk of her lower belly. The crispness of her nether curls brushing against his sensitive flesh brought a quickening to his groin, and her gasp of pleasure shot the sensation through the rest of him.

"C'mere, woman," he growled, quickly rolling her to her back, arms still wrapped around her, but bracing most of his weight on his forearms. Parting her thighs with one of his own, he dipped his head to the underside of her jaw, tracing the sweet flesh with his tongue and lips. "Gorramit, Mermaid, ya taste so good."

Her throaty laugh echoed through his head with her next words. "Then perhaps you should help yourself to a hearty portion."

"Think I will," he answered, arching her up to him to capture a dusky erect nipple gently between his teeth. Smiling wickedly around the captured bud, he flicked his tongue across the tip before taking as much of her breast into his hot mouth. Inara moaned as he sucked and kissed her satiny skin, her pleasure echoing against the cliffs.

Running his hands along her sides, he grasped her hips. She flexed up to his mouth as he rained slow, wet kisses across her torso, down to her navel and lower belly. The fresh taste of the rushing water clung to her skin and his tongue, and he lapped at her delicate flesh like a man dying of thirst.

Inara combed her fingers through his short dark hair, kneading his scalp as she raised her body up to meet his kisses. Her soft gasps and moans urged John Henry back to attention, but Jayne focused his attentions on his woman's pleasure. She'd been so patient, so honestly contrite that she'd scared the bejeezus outta him, repentently bringing him to hard climax with her hands and mouth and heavenly sinful eyes. Easing between her thighs, Jayne planned to thoroughly return the favor.

Framing her ni yin with large sure hands, he spread her outer folds with his thumbs and breathed lightly across the aroused flesh of her woman's core, thrilling at the way she caught her breath. Unwilling to prolong her wait or his own, he slid his tongue slowly up the hot, wet center of her, unable to restrain his own lustful groan as memory and reality of her sweet taste entwined to slam into his senses. The scent of crisp forest and cool water melded with the enticing woman-taste that was all Inara.

For long months, Jayne had laid in his bunk, alone with her memory. Her scent. Her flavor. The texture of her sex against his hungry lips. Long, lonely nights and weeks he'd damn near gone crazy, aching to hear his name falling from her lips one more time, full of a wanting so strong it damn near broke him.

He poured all his waiting and desire into pleasuring her, alternating between light, teasing flickers across her aroused bud, to long, languorous, loving strokes between her hot, wet folds. Thrusting his firm tongue deep into her, he mimicked what he yearned to do to her with his diao, letting the imagining flood his mind as her nectar flooded his senses.

It was as good as he'd remembered, better, the feeling of this beautiful woman, _his_ woman coming unraveled. For him. Because of him. He used his mouth, his hands, his long aching fingers to draw her fall, stroking deep and slow inside her until she came. She shared her release with him without reservation, arching up into his mouth hard and strong, her voice reverberating against the stones as she cried out his name. He licked and suckled every fallen ounce of her dew, savoring the precious offering with relish.

Kissing the sensitive flesh of her inner thighs, he let her catch her breath a moment, before drawing her carefully to him in the water. Jayne wrapped her up in his arm, capturing her mouth with a fierce, lush kiss she returned with abandon. Inara pressed against his naked flesh with her firm, tempting body, and Jayne could wait no longer.

Getting a firm footing on the rock shelf below the water, he leaned her up against the low-slung rock, a warm arm protecting her bare skin from the cool, hard stone. His other arm slipped under her firm round bottom as she wrapped her long, silky legs around his waist. Jayne touched his forehead gently to hers, holding her shining gaze as he slid slowly into her.

"Renci de Fouzu. Dear merciful Buddha… how I've wanted this, Jayne," she whispered as he filled her. "Wanted you. Needed you. Ached for you."

* * *

To be continued….


	8. Chapter 8

Moonlight & Serenades Part VIII

Sequel to: Tea & a Tango for Two

Author: Brandywine00

Rating: NC-18, MATURE ADULT. Really.

Disclaimer: I don't own, nor do I make any cashy-money from this. Joss is Boss!

By special request for BigBadJayne…

* * *

~Eire Moon, on the Rim~

Inara leaned back into Jayne's broad chest, closing her eyes as he finger-combed her hair. The fierce heat of their loving had mellowed into a sweet, comfortable glow as they relaxed in the fading light of Eire's sister moon. Losing herself in the rhythm of his hands and his steady breathing and the constant shushing flow of the waterfall, she marveled at the rightness growing strong and sure in her heart.

"It's a losing battle, bao bei," she said with a soft smile, though he couldn't see it. His fingers stilled for an instant, before resuming the soothing strokes through the dark, damp strands. The other arm tightened ever so slightly around her waist, as if he were trying to draw her even closer into him. "My curls have always had a will of their own, despite all my tricks to make them behave. They're always worse when they're wet."

"Oh," he murmured, letting his hold on her relax a bit, his strong, careful fingers resuming their attentions. "My woman and her wild hair."

She smiled at that and at the warmth spreading through her chest at his words. _My woman_. The reality was undeniable to her now, had always been there in the recesses of her mind waiting for her to acknowledge and claim it.

"Gorramit," he whispered, surprising her with the sudden resignation in his voice. His fingers slid from her hair to skim her bare arm, his body tensed behind her as he brought his head to rest against her temple and took a slow, deep breath. The exhale, just as measured, brought no ease to his tension. She turned to see him in her peripheral vision, alarmed by the deep furrow creasing his brow. "'Nara…. I'm sorry. I'm… just so sorry."

"Jayne?" She twisted around in his arms to face him fully, tracing his cheek with her fingertips. "Sorry for what? Talk to me, bao bei, tell me what's wrong." She wasn't sure she was ready to know, not now, not when she'd finally found what she had sought all this time. Not now, here secure in his embrace. Glimmering hope faltered in her mind, transforming into a cold weight in her center.

He hugged her tight to him for a moment, his reluctance growing more palpable with each moment. "Never put much stock in foolin' myself. Life's too short, no sense in a man pretenin' an' hopin' for what he can't have. I know that, 'Nara, but the truth'll stand when the world's are on fire."

"This isn't pretend –"

"Please, 'Nara, this is hard enough to say already. You know I ain't a man much for words, just let me get it out whilst I can." He resumed the slow, gentle strokes through her hair. Inara felt her throat tighten, each pass of his fingers feeling like a touch of goodbye.

"Guild's gonna come to it's ruttin' senses 'fore too long. Restore yer license an' all. Everything's gonna get straightened out for ya, I just know it." He was trying to sound upbeat. Positive, happy for her, despite the tightness he was trying to hide beneath his words.

"You could get to go back to yer kinda life, back to everything ya worked so hard for. All them years spent trainin' an' workin' through the companion ranks… you could have better than a life scratchin' a livin' out of the Black. A far sight better than what a man like me can give ya. An' you deserve all that, 'Nara."

All her years of training and working failed her in hiding the shudder in her breathing. Inara blinked back the scalding tears. "Don't, Jayne," she whispered tightly. "Please… don't…"

Warm, callused thumbs tenderly brushed at the tears running down her cheeks. "Gorramit, woman, I didn't mean ta…"

"I can't do this, Jayne," she sobbed into his shoulder, all her careful poise and control gone now. "Can't stand to hear it… not after all that's passed… not fair… I'm not strong enough…"

He swept her up in a fierce embrace, rocking a bit while she spent her tears. A strong, gentle hand stroked her back as his low voice shushed and soothed her.

"Strong as most any woman I ever met," his voice rumbled soft against her ear. "Got nerve and a backbone what'd make most men look puny, for all ya look so frail an' dainty. Most folk don't know strong don't come from yer muscles. Comes from here." He trailed his fingers down her breastbone to linger over her heart. "Comes from here." He stroked her temple.

"Ain't many could do what ya done. Fine, culturated lady like you, 'customed to nice things. But ya did it. Gorram if ya didn't do it, done come out here an' claimed a piece of it fer yerself. An' that ain't nothin', 'Nara."

"But it's not enough," she tightly finished what she knew he was going to say. It took every last ounce of her will to keep her anguish from showing, and she struggled to not let him see how deeply his words cut. She thought it would be enough. Thought if she could adapt, be open and honest with him, it would work itself out. "Not enough. Is it?"

His candid words during their last union crept back into her mind, twisting upon themselves. He'd never be happy in 'her' world. And now, it seemed he didn't want her to be a part of his. That was it, wasn't it? He was trying to give her an exit. Be noble and gracious and 'tra-la-la, be on your merry, Inara, 'cause I don't wanna get all entangled.'

"It's not enough," his voice cracked a bit as he sagged into her. "You'd miss things, things ya can't find out here. Poetry and … museum type stuff. Whatever it is core folks got that makes livin' there better than livin' here. Ain't gonna blame ya when ya decide the Black's not worth it. I just wish…"

"Jayne, who ever said – "

"'Nara, please!" he hissed. "Gotta get this said! Can't let it just sit here and wish time back after it's too late."

Clamping her lips in a firm line she stared up at the fifty-foot sheet of water plummeting down the white cliff, feeling like her heart was being dragged under by the tow.

* * *


	9. Chapter 9

Moonlight & Serenades Part IX

Sequel to: Tea & a Tango for Two

Author: Brandywine00

Rating: NC-18, MATURE ADULT. Really.

Disclaimer: I don't own, nor do I make any cashy-money from this. Joss is Boss!

By special request for BigBadJayne…

* * *

~Eire Moon, on the Rim~

She was stiff as a stone in his arms, staring out at the water and still shaking a little. The night wind picked up the chill coming off the spray, covering his own skin, but Jayne knew that wasn't all that caused her tremors. Inara's ribcage rose and fell shallowly against his chest as she tried to control her breathing.

Blinking back the uncomfortable burn in his eyes, he fixed them toward the same point he thought she studied. Like one of them things where if you looked up at the same moon as somebody you was missing, you could sorta connect or some such go se. Right now, he was willing to try anything to make her understand, make her see the truth of things.

"I ain't never claimed to be the best man in the gorram 'verse," he said simply. "May have a few manners an' such from my younger days, but they ain't seen much use, sad to say."

He paused, trying to make his tongue line up with his thoughts. Gorram words, never wanted to come out right for him when it came to what he felt inside. Always got twisted up somehow in his throat before they came out, made him feel small and stupid even when he knew what he was trying to tell. A lot of the time, he'd just let them stay there and fight amongst themselves, make less a fool of hisself than he would if he just kept his ruttin' mouth shut.

"We'd both be kiddin' ourselves, if we didn't know ya deserve so much better'n me. Done told ya, ain't much use for a man to fool hisself, trying to pretend somethin' is what it ain't. Lyin' to hisself that somethin' can be done when it just ain't possible."

The half-hitch in her breath made him sag against her in frustration. He let the softness of her damp curls brush against his face, half so he couldn't see the tears still slowly rolling down her smooth cheeks, half because he figured this would be the last chance he'd ever have to do so.

"Before you left… that time we had… I told ya then, didn't expect a fine lady like yerself to give up everything that she'd ever known, ever wanted."

He hated himself for the slight trembling in her body as he spoke, but plunged ahead, determined to say his piece and let the devil take the rest. She had to know where things stood.

"Told ya then, too, that I'd never fit in to yer world. All fancy manners and high-class and go se I'm sure I can't even 'magine. Never could see a man like me findin' a place for hisself in all that civilizedness."

Jayne let his hand stray down to her elegantly clasped hand, gently prying one loose and lacing his fingers with hers. She let him, though he half expected her to draw it back to her lap. Wrapping her small, smooth hand in his large, rough one, he dared one more soft kiss on her shoulder.

It was that barest, softest brush of his lips that broke her. Crumpling in on herself, she quietly wept, and he felt like the biggest hun dan in the 'verse right then for making her feel this way. Cussing himself again, he let second thoughts battle through him. He figured she'd have known this was coming, would be able to see where it all was going, but he never figured she'd react this bad to it. Maybehaps it were better to not say nothing, just let things go like they were. But he knew that weren't an option this time, weren't something he could just swallow back down and live with if he didn't get it said.

"'Nara… sweet woman…" he whispered low in her ear. Gorramit, why did he always seem to make her cry? "Don't have nothin' to offer a woman like you, 'sides myself… a few guns… no notion of the kinda life ya ought to have. Can't see that ever makin' ya happy. An' God knows, I want ya to be happy, 'Nara. More'n I wanna breathe."

Inara straightened a bit against him, sniffing back her tears. "I understand, Jayne," she said in a small, strained voice. "Shouldn't fool ourselves, right?"

"Right," he answered numbly, hating to see her broken but wary of the Companion's façade she seemed to be trying to slip back into. "Been tryin' to fool myself long enough as it is."

She finally turned to look at him, her big dark eyes confused. "What do you mean?" she whispered.

Suddenly even more discomfortable than before, he let the words roll out of him on their own accord.

"After that first time ya left… I told myself was for the best." Staring at their entwined fingers, he rubbed his thumb absently against the back of her dainty hand, unable to meet her gaze.

"Told myself it was just… well, didn't never tell myself it was just trim, never thought that for a minute. Knew that night was somethin' more, that you was somethin' real special. Somethin' I weren't like to find again, but tried to tell myself that didn't matter. Ought to just be glad for what I'd had with ya, put it in the back of my mind and think on it when times was bad. Y'know, a happy type mem'ry to get me through troubles, an' all."

He closed his eyes, not ready to face her reaction.

"Told myself all manner of things, how it was all 'just a moment in time'. Not to be pinin' over what I'd never hold onto, had no claim on in the first place. Just ought to be damn glad a sorry sumbitch like me was ever lucky 'nough to hold it for the time."

Taking a deep breath, he plunged ahead, the words he'd bottled up for months spilling out of his mouth before he could stop them. "Then you was back. An' I expected you and Mal to iron things out. An' I told myself that I was all right with that, was just how things was s'posed to be an' I could live with that. An' ever time ya smiled at him, a lil' piece of me died inside, but it didn't matter cause he was what ya wanted. An' ever time he hurt yer feelin's, was all I could do to not put my fist through that smart-ass mouth, but I didn't cause I didn't have no right to, cause you wasn't mine."

She'd gone stock-still again, didn't say a word, he couldn't even feel her breathing against him.

"Figured over time, it'd ease off, get better. But it didn't work like that, an' maybe it's selfish of me but I can't say I was sorry a'tall when you an' him called it quits. An' every day you was there on Serenity, it was worse for me, 'Nara, cause I never did get past wantin' to be with ya again. Only this time wasn't just wantin' to lay down with you, though good God in heaven how I wanted that."

Fear tore at his chest because what he let her know, he had never spoke out loud even to himself. But he'd gone this far, at least one day he could die knowing she knew, for what it was worth. She'd be able to sit on her satiny pillows and drink rare tea in the ivory palaces on Sihnon and know somewhere out there on the raggedy edge of the Black was a Rim-bred mercenary with a 'Nara shaped hole where his heart used to be.

"All this time, 'Nara, I been foolin' myself, tellin' myself I'd be all right when ya left again. When the Black couldn't hold on to ya no more, an' I knew I couldn't hold ya here neither. Not if ya didn't wanna stay. Ain't never met a woman I couldn't walk away from. Not a one I'd ever pack up an follow to the Core if she wanted. Told ya that, didn't I?"

Jayne risked a look at her to see Inara nod her head solemnly, her big doe eyes filled with sadness.

"Never did find that woman, 'Nara," he said simply. "Not till you."

For all his years of tracking and reading other folks' intentions, he couldn't read what was going through her head as she stared at him. She didn't say a gorram word, just sat there not even blinking. Dropping his head, feeling the biggest fool of Londinium, he sighed wearily, resigned to getting up and getting dressed and getting back to his life, such as it was.

He'd laid it all out on the table, but it weren't enough. _Didn't really think it would be, didja boy?_ He stole one last moment to look at her, all soft and shiny, then let go of her and prepared to stand up.

He was totally unprepared for the small, fiery bundle of woman that propelled herself into him, knocking his back flat against the rock as she straddled him. Tiny fists punched his shoulders and chest as she scowled down at him.

"You are a fool, Jayne Cobb!" A sharp punch to his shoulder punctuated the words. "I'd never have dreamed it of you, but here it is, proof to the positive!"

"What? Gorramit, 'Nara, figured you'd laugh, but didn't think you'd get mad at me," he yelped, grabbing her wrists to keep her from hitting him. "Man can't help how he feels!"

She stopped, sitting there angry as a mad cat, her tears now rolling freely down reddened cheeks as her chest heaved.

"If you honestly think for one second that I'd just let you get up and walk away after… after…"

He had half a second to start a wide-toothed smile before her mouth crashed down on his in the softest, fiercest attack he'd ever received.

* * *


	10. Chapter 10

Moonlight & Serenades Part X

Sequel to: Tea & a Tango for Two

Author: Brandywine00

Rating: NC-18, MATURE ADULT. Really.

Disclaimer: I don't own, nor do I make any cashy-money from this. Joss is Boss! Lyrics not mine either, but belong to the most gorram awesome band EVER: Metallica! Thanks Jellie_RayneLuv for the quick and awesome beta!

By special request for BigBadJayne…

* * *

~Eire Moon, on the Rim~

Inara kissed him for all she was worth, stealing the breath from his lungs and the thoughts from his mind.

It took Jayne all of a half-second, just long enough for his brows to come back down from his hairline and his arms to wrap around her, for him to kiss her back with just as much intensity. She was still a bit teary, still had her pretty brows knit together, and she didn't seem to be letting him up any time soon.

Suited Jayne just fine. Weren't the first time he'd been held hostage, but was gorram certain the sweetest and the only time he'd probably shoot anyone what tried to rescue him.

Inara had him pinned against the cool white stone with a silky, bare thigh pressed along each side of his ribs. She held his face captive in her slender hands, keeping him where she wanted him while she plundered his willing mouth.

Threading his fingers into her nearly dried curls, Jayne groaned deep and returned the tender, frenzied assault. Her legs flexed in response along his sides, matching rhythm with the thrusting dance of their tongues. The wild abandon of their movements had awakened John Thomas again, who was doing his best to join the crusade each time her sweet, wriggling bottom swayed within range.

Suddenly, she pulled away from his mouth to level an intense stare at him, breathing heavy as she braced her hands on his shoulders. Before Jayne could get a word out, or even make a suggestion with his hands, she raised herself up from his stomach, reached between her thighs and grasped the hardened length of his diao with surprisingly strong fingers.

"Just try to tell me you don't want me," she demanded, stroking the undeniable evidence of his desire.

Jayne opened his mouth to answer, but another stroke, this time directing the sensitive head along her slick opening, caused his moan to drown whatever the guay he'd been about to say.

"Tell me you can walk away, never again to feel me surrounding you, like a glove perfectly crafted just for you," she breathed hard, rubbing the tip back and forth along her hot ni yin. "Tell me you want me to go away, leave you be."

He arched up toward her waiting depths. Her aggressiveness and the heady woman-scent of her drifting in the air aroused him so much that the words tripped up in his throat.

"Because I don't think you want that at all, do you my Jayne?" she purred sweetly. In an instant, she had impaled herself upon him, gasping with pleasure and closing her eyes as he filled her entirely.

"I don't think you want that, Jayne," she whispered, opening those dark, knowing eyes to stare through him. The soft honey of her voice rolling across his name nearly caused him to peak as Inara ground against the base of his shaft and leaned down to graze his chest with her erect nipples. "Of course, I could be wrong."

Slowly, she raised herself off his sex-slicked shaft until only the swollen tip remained seated within her. Undulating her hips, she gripped the remaining bit of him with her inner muscles, and let her teeth toy with her lower lip. She slid just a bit further down, causing him to spike up to her, but she was ready for that, lifting herself quickly away, just far enough to keep the same amount of his diao inside her. Her hips kept making those swirls around the throbbing tip.

"Am I wrong, Jayne? Do you want me to stop? Do you want me to quit bothering you?" The questions came out softly, almost innocently, but Jayne heard the insecurity trembling behind them. "Do you truly want to say goodbye?"

Catching her up against his broad chest, Jayne wrapped his arms around her and rolled them together to bring his body over hers, now firmly planted between her thighs. Holding himself perfectly still, he wrestled hard against the urge to pull back and thrust over and over again into the wonderful silk surrounding him. Not yet. First things first.

"Woman, you've gotta be outta your beautiful noggin," he whispered, letting a smile break across his face. "I know I'm a dumb hundan. Ain't the most book-read dumbass floatin'. But I _ain't_ no fool!"

Sliding most of the way out of her, he eased back into her heavenly core just as slowly, setting a gentle rhythm that showed no sign of ending anytime soon. For several minutes, they both seemed to be lost in the meeting of bodies. Inara let her head fall back, arching her body up to meet his advance until her breath grew stilted and fast.

"But you… you said," she managed in a pleasure-drenched whisper between his strokes, "that you couldn't be happy with me… and you didn't want… our relationship to go further… aiya, Jayne, do that again!"

"Knowed… I weren't no good with words," he groaned, as the haze of pleasure crept into his muscles and his mind. "But gorram it, darlin'," he paused long enough to feather a kiss across her lips. "'Parently, I'm a sight worse than I reckoned – Oh, yeah, 'Nara… so good when ya lift up like that – if what all I said made you think I didn't wanna be with you."

A gasp caught in her throat as he shifted his hips for a deeper angle and ran his mouth down the length of her neck.

"Said… you couldn't lie… anymore."

"Mmmmm, mmm-hmmm?" Jayne murmured as his mouth kept moving toward her beautiful, perfect breasts. "Can't." Taking one sweet peak in his mouth, he pulled her up to him until she was straddling his lap. Without missing a beat, she ground herself down upon him, leaning back against the arm he had tight around her back while he continued to run his mouth across her flesh.

"You said you wanted me to go back to the Core." She ran her fingers through his hair, clasping his head to her chest. "And you didn't want to go. Didn't want me to stay out here."

Jayne rasped his beard gently across her nipples, loving the way it made her gasp and tighten her core around him. "Ain't what I said a'tall," he answered with a frustrated sigh. "Said I couldn't ask ya to stay, if ya wanted to go back. Only lie was when I said I wouldn't follow ya there."

His mouth retraced the path back to her neck and under her jaw. When he reached her plump lips again, she met the long, sliding strokes of his tongue with her own.

"Don't want ya to go back there. Understand if ya do. Just…" he pulled her tight against him, pressing his face in her hair. Jayne didn't think he'd ever get tired of the feel of her hair against his skin.

Inara stroked the muscles of his back. "Just…?"

He sighed heavily. "Just… if ya do go… better know… I aim to go with ya, dong ma?"

A breeze had kicked up again, so he wasn't sure if her shiver was from cold or from her thoughts. He rubbed his hands up and down her back to warm her as much as to revel in the feel of her skin against him.

"You'd be miserable there. You know that, don't you?" She asked sadly.

"Not near as miserable as I'd be any place where you ain't."

Inara pulled back enough to search his face. Her big brown eyes were getting that glassy sheen of tears again.

"An' don't try an' tell me otherwise, 'cause believe me, I know. Can't count the times I 'bout jumped ship, packed up an' ready to catch the next freighter headed toward yer trainin' house."

He palmed her cheek in one large, work-worn hand. "Ain't lettin' ya go again, 'Nara. Can't. Yer stuck with me, however you'll have me."

He leaned to capture her lips, his chest about to explode when she met him halfway. Her kiss held none of the frenzy, none of the earlier desperation, yet was filled with an intensity that shook him to his core.

"However I'll have you?" She whispered against his burning lips, wrapping her legs at the small of his back and settling into a steady rhythm against him. "Are you certain you're willing to go that far, Jayne?"

Sliding his hands to grip her smooth hips, he helped her raise and lower herself on him, gently lifting his hips to meet her with each stroke.

"Ain't never been more sure of nothin' in my life, bao bei," he vowed, grinning a bit at himself and the kind of love-sick sentiments he figured he'd never let get hold of him. "Gotta be with ya, 'Nara. Nothin' else matters."

* * *

The night's revelry had wound down to a few slow fiddle strains and guitar catering to die-hard few who refused to let the night end.

Emmit glanced up from the stump he sat on, ready to pack away his fiddle and head home, but a movement stopped him. At the edge of the clearing, two shapes emerged, though at a distance they were pressed so closely they could be mistaken for one form. The large, dangerous mercenary held the lovely, petite Companion tight with a well-muscled arm possessively wrapped around her dainty waist.

The old fiddler smiled at the sight. No doubt the two had come from the Lover's Falls, judging from the dampness of the man's clothing and the moon-eyes they made at each other. Sliding his bow across the strings, Emmit let the plaintive restrain transition into an older, lighter ballad. He couldn't remember the words, but it was a well-known melody of love found and lost and fought for and claimed again.

The two lovers hesitated at the edge of the bonfire's light. Crew from that ship what brought the seed that would keep their little settlement life. Most of the space folk had wandered back to their ship, or off to their own designs.

The man, gun hand from the looks of the wicked armaments clinging to his damp clothes, stared down at his partner, taking a slender hand in his much larger one, and pulled her into the clearing with a sort of bow.

She was a beauty for certain, Emmit thought, laying the bow a little stronger in hopes they'd take up the tune. Her smile at the elder man's gesture gave him a warm glow, but that paled to the blinding beauty that came when she turned the smile to her man and curtsied.

Sweeping her up in his arms, the rugged fellow twirled her around the bonfire for the rest of the song. Emmit played an extra couple of stanzas for them, rather sad to see them stop their dance.

Escorting her to a seat, a long fallen log that had been pulled from the forest for the festivities, the big man walked over to Emmit and whispered low. The old man's grin split his face as he nodded, waving toward the unused guitar sitting beside him.

The younger man plucked a few times to gauge the tuning, then turned out a song from long, long ago. Emmit let the soft sound of his fiddle drift up in harmony, and was surprised when the man added his deep voice to the melody.

"So close, no matter how far  
Couldn't be much more from the heart  
Forever trusting who we are  
and nothing else matters."

His steady gaze never left the dark-haired beauty as his voice carried his feelings for her.

"Never opened myself this way  
Life is ours, we live it our way  
All these words I don't just say  
and nothing else matters."

She rose, gliding across the packed dirt to him like a queen floating across the marble floors of a palace.

"Trust I seek and I find in you  
Every day for us something new  
Open mind for a different view  
and nothing else matters…"

The old man turned his head and packed away his fiddle as quietly as he could, not wanting to intrude on the kiss between the two. Smiling to himself, he headed down the street to his own true love, humming the song to himself.

* * *


	11. Epilogue

Moonlight & Serenades ~ Epilogue

Sequel to: Tea & a Tango for Two

Author: Brandywine00

Rating: NC-18, MATURE ADULT. Really.

Disclaimer: I don't own, nor do I make any cashy-money from this. Joss is Boss! Thanks Jellie_RayneLuv for the quick and awesome beta!

By special request for BigBadJayne… Happy Birthday, Big Guy!

* * *

Eire moon, on the Rim~

~Ten years future~

A cloud of dust rose in the distance, heralding the pack of riders bearing down on the two-story farmhouse. She knew they'd be coming for her son. She just didn't know if she could stand to watch them ride back down that road with him.

Mrs. Cobb sighed into her dainty white teacup and watched them turn up the long, hard-packed dirt entrance to her family's home. Behind them, across the acres of ripening cornfield, dark purple clouds hovered over the hillsides like angry bruises.

This day had been coming for almost a decade, yet she wasn't sure she was prepared for the reality. _What mother ever truly was_, she wondered. The scent of rain hovered on the faint breeze, but there'd been none to speak of in the past few weeks, allowing the dry soil beneath galloping hooves to fill the air around them.

She tried to ready herself for what would be just as much a trial for her as for her firstborn. Standing on the wide porch that wrapped around the Cobb homestead, she silently prayed the Sheriff and the three men who rode with him would bear in mind a mother's heart.

Rising as the men reined in their sweat-lathered beasts at the foot of the steps, she studied them from under her hand that shielded her eyes from the burning sun.

The Sheriff, tall and broad and serious on a fierce looking soot-black horse, was reputed to have the fastest draw in this quadrant. She didn't know if that rumor was true, but she knew first-hand that the man was wickedly fast. And deadly accurate. He was a man whose sheer size and bearing commanded respect, even when the shining metal star on his shirt didn't. And those who ignored his powerful build, his manner or his authority were generally smart enough not to ignore the deadly array of firepower he carried at most times.

The polished wood stock of his rifle rode within easy reach of his large, sturdy left hand. The strong, callused right hand, his primary gun hand, she knew, lifted from its post on the butt of his revolver to touch his brim in respect.

Heat that owed nothing to the humid August weather crept slowly up from under her skirts and made its way to her cheeks. After all this time, he still had that effect on her. Perhaps he was trying to use that effect to ease her trepidation. In part, it was a sound ploy, though her heart still lodged itself in her throat.

"Reckon it's time," he said firmly, but with a gentleness that told her he knew what this was doing to her. The knowledge seemed to pain him a bit, though she knew his mind wouldn't be swayed on this matter.

Those who hadn't known him as long as she would never guess the man was closer to three-score years than to the two-score he seemed. Except the scattering of silver at his temples and in his neatly trimmed beard, the only permanent signs of age were the lines around his piercing blue eyes as he squinted against the bright daylight.

"Fetch your son. It's time," he said a bit louder, his sharp eyes peering past her through the dimmed house.

Steeling her spine, she nodded, resolving not to let the unshed tears drop. The display would wound her son's sense of pride, to have his momma crying over him. They all knew this was just the way things were done out here on the Rim. That didn't mean she had to like it.

Turning to do so, she was spared the duty as her son, her only son, her darling son, stepped through the doorway, a pistol strapped to either thigh. Holding his prized rifle at ease across his widening shoulders, he had a small bag of necessities that would see him through the coming days. She'd tried to slip in a few comforts, tea and a decent change of clothing, but he'd repacked.

"Ain't gonna be much call for niceties where I'll be headin'," he'd told her bravely, though in the waning hours of daylight his brilliant blue eyes had carried a bit more concern than he'd like to admit to.

"Boy's ready to face his destiny," called the rider on the Sheriff's left.

Years of hard living, both by fate and by choice, had drawn themselves around the man. But his shoulders were as straight as ever, and a near whimsical laughter played around the corners of his eyes as he watched her son haul his bag over the free shoulder and march bravely down to meet the men. "Fancy he's got any notion what he's in for?"

His words broke through her reverie, poking at a raw spot under her ribs. Breathing slowly, she leveled a hard stare at him, but forced herself not to rise to the bait. She had to remind herself of the attraction she'd once felt toward him, long dead and gone now, due in no small part to the way he'd always found just the right words to rub her the wrong way. Just like now.

Sensing her rising ire, he held up a hand in supplication. "Meant no harm by it," he chuckled, letting his infamous charm seep around the edges of his gruff exterior.

"Still got a way with words, doncha?" A bear of a man growled from behind the Sheriff, rubbing the thick black beard that barely hid his smile. He touched his brim toward her too, adding a gruff, "Ma'am." Had he been here for other purposes, she'd have smiled back at him. He'd saved her life, that of her family, on more than one occasion. But not today. Today, she couldn't dredge up the charitable, polite actions she'd honed for decades. Today, she was as likely to tell the lot of them to bugger off.

"It won't take as long as you think," chimed the last man in precise, cultured tones. Meeting his sympathetic glance, she nodded. Of the lot of them, he perhaps understood her concerns the most, having been reared in similar fashion. Things out here on the Rim were handled differently than life back in the 'civilized' worlds. Yet here he was, part and party to the whole doing, and showing no hesitation in participating.

"Be over 'fore ya know it," the Sheriff's deep voice rolled across her, calming her and exciting her at the same time. "Ain't no sense in getting' worked up, darlin'."

She marched herself over to his well-built form, laying a slender hand gently on his thigh. "I know why you feel he needs to do this, I just don't understand why now? Surely it can wait?"

His eyes grew soft as he stared down at her. Just barely, and not nearly quickly enough to react, she caught the mischief twinkling there as he leaned down and grasped her under the arms.

Hauling her up on his lap atop the great black brute as if she weighed nothing, he settled her side-saddle with one thick-muscled arm wrapped around her. With the other, he reined his horse away from the others. The fiery mount snorted as if offended by the added weight, though she'd always suspected the mare had always bore a bit of jealousy at sharing the Sheriff.

"Vera, behave!" He growled at the beast, his brow furrowing as he tugged the reins for just a moment before he returned his sky-blue gaze at his wife. "We done talked about this, 'Nara. Derry's a full year older'n I was when Pa and my kin took me out on Quest."

Resting her head against his stout neck, Inara breathed in the clean, outdoorsy scent of her husband as she whispered for his ears only. "I know he's in the best of hands, Jayne. No one would look out for him more than you, but he's…. he's still just… he's still my…"

"You still see him as your baby boy," he said softly against her ear, both for the joy of feeling her still-dark curls against his face, and to avoid embarrassing their son in front of the other 'menfolk'.

"That's partly why we do this, sweetheart. He's nearing ten, and already taller than you. Another couple years, he'll be ready to court. Ready to work. Ready to… well, ready to be a man proper. An' us Cobbs tend to get there a bit quicker than others. This here's just a few lessons to help prepare our boy for that."

Their boy, chatting animatedly with his three "uncles", glanced over at his parents. Inara caught the faint blush on his neck, and could nearly hear his chagrin that his Momma thought he was still just a baby.

Letting the tension ease away, she leaned into Jayne's broad chest. He still kept himself in shape, a claim most men past fifty couldn't make. Of all the men she could have chosen to take her son on a two-week survival excursion, his father was the one she felt confident could protect him.

Not that there were many bandits left in these parts. When they'd settled here ten years ago, newly married and just recently expecting young Derrial Jayne Cobb, Eire had been a young world. Its distance from Alliance concerns and eyes had made it attractive to those whose professions leaned toward the less savory.

When the nearby settlement, the very one they'd brought seed and supplies to all those years ago, needed law enforcement, Jayne had applied. Who better to track down deadly thugs than a former mercenary, he reasoned? Especially one familiar with questionable professional pursuits.

Sheriff Jayne Cobb had called on Malcolm Reynolds and their crew from Serenity to flush out the worst of the criminal elements. Paying by the job, the team had cleaned out a more than a dozen vipers' nests. Within six months, only a handful of lesser crooks had remained.

Within seven months, Jayne was a new father dead-set on making their adopted homeworld as safe as possible for the future Cobb brood. It was a task he attacked with a vengeance, ranging out to aid other communities when they called and even working as a bounty hunter on a couple of occasions.

By the time Derry was able to run after his Pa, their little corner of the world was about as safe as any could image for a backwater Rim moon. Safe enough that when Inara whispered her idea to her husband late one night, he'd fallen silent for a long moment then kissed her softly and nodded.

As her belly grew large with their second child, he redoubled his efforts, adding Mal's old army buddy, Monte, to the roster of bad-guy removal experts. As the last of the regional cutthroats left Eire or were planted in the cemetery, Jayne started renovating their simple frame house, adding a second story for their expanding family, and a separate wing of chambers for Inara's business venture.

Within four years, Jayne's reputation as a lawman had spread to other settlements across Eire. The legend of Sheriff Jayne grew a bit larger in the telling. There were times it bothered him, and many a late night he'd hold her close while he dreamed, the words _Canton_ and _Mudders_ slipping from a strained throat.

But come morning, her man donned the star and rode toward town to do his duty. If he felt the title 'Hero of Canton' was undeserved, Inara knew he'd made up for it tenfold as the hero of Eire. Families from other moons and worlds felt safe enough to put down stakes on Eire, and the communities started to thrive.

If Jayne's legend was responsible for making Eire the kind of place folks would want to settle in, Inara's own reputation helped make it a cultural retreat and center for civilized learning. As soon as she was able following the birth of Serra Kaywinnet Cobb, Inara set her plans in motion.

While harboring no residual love for the Companion's Guild, she recognized the opportunity to help young ladies in the quadrant. Life on the Rim rarely held the chance to grow past whatever occupation one's family was involved in. And though Inara held no prejudice toward those who preferred an agrarian lifestyle, she knew the benefits that her cultural expertise could have for those who sought employment closer to the Core.

"How goes the schoolin'?" Inara lifted her head from Jayne's chest at the chipper question from amongst the riders. "Any 'companionable' material?"

"I've told you repeatedly, it's not a Companion training school, Malcolm," she replied, easily deflecting the bait, and a bit thankful for the distracting line of thought. "And it's going quite well, thank you for asking. I've got eight students this term, three of which have come all the way from Border worlds."

"It's so very nice to see girls from this area have the opportunity to further themselves," the understanding rider chimed in. Life in the Black had changed him, hardened him up from the boy he'd been when they met, but Dr. Simon Tam had grown into a his role as frontier doctor after Kaylee had finally agreed to settle on world.

"Love to sit around and chit-chat, folks, but we need to get movin' if we're gonna beat that storm to the campsite," the bear-man interrupted.

"Right, Monte," her husband laughed. "Let's get a move-on, son. Ain't no Cobb gonna melt with a li'l rain, but Doc and the Cap'n here may shrivel up."

Laying a deep kiss on his wife, he winked at her as she slid back to find her footing on the ground. "Don't worry, bao bei," he whispered. "We'll be back before you know it."

Hugging her son tight for a brief moment, Inara stepped back and watched him mount up, taking his place and ride away with 'the menfolk'.

She wasn't ready for him to grow up, but he was doing so nonetheless. He'd come back soon. They both would. And nothing else mattered.

~FIN~


End file.
